1999-2005
CANDIDACY PROCESS
The Helsinki European Council held on the 10th -11th December 1999 marked a breakthrough in Turkey-EU relations. At the Helsinki Summit, Turkey was officially recognised without any precondition as a “candidate state” on an equal footing with other candidate states. The Helsinki European Council Conclusions confirmed Turkey’s position as a candidate state “destined to join the European Union” and clearly stated that Turkey will reap the benefits form a pre-accession strategy to stimulate and support its reforms. The Council Conclusions stated that the pre-accession strategy will also include an Accession Partnership, which will be drawn up accordingly, combined with a National Program for the adoption of the acquis communautaire. According to the Council Conclusions, Turkey was to participate in Community programs open to other candidate countries and agencies. Furthermore, Turkey was to be invited to the meetings between candidate states and the Union in the context of the accession process. The European Commission was tasked with presenting a single framework for coordinating all sources of European Union financial assistance for pre-accession. Along with these, the Commission was tasked with regularly monitoring Turkey’s progress in aligning with the EU acquis through its Progress Reports. The recognition of Turkey as a candidate for accession at the Helsinki European Council in December 1999 marked a turning point in Turkey’s relations with the EU.
As noted in the Helsinki European Council conclusions, the Commission started to prepare an Accession Partnership for Turkey. On the 26th February 2001, The Framework Regulation designed to furnish the legal basis for the Accession Partnership was adopted by the General Affairs Council. The regulation aims at combining all EU financial assistance under a single programme. On the other hand, the Accession Partnership was finalized and formally approved by the Council on the 8th March 2001. With the adoption of these two documents, an important legal procedure concerning Turkey's accession strategy was finalized.
The Accession Partnership for Turkey, an important instrument of the Commission formed in line with its enlargement policy, is prepared within the framework of Turkey´s ability to fulfill the so-called Copenhagen political criteria. The document is composed of short-term, middle-term and long-term targets that Turkey has to fulfill to comply with the Copenhagen political criteria.
After the approval of the Accession Partnership by the Council and the adoption of the Framework Regulation, the Turkish government announced its own National Program for the Adoption of the EU acquis on the 24th March 2001. The National Program was submitted to the Commission on the 26th March, 2001. The National Program has been produced with a careful appreciation of the short and medium-term priorities to be fulfilled. Furthermore, the revised Accession Partnership was approved by the Council in 2003 and the revised National Program entered into force following its publication on the 24th July 2003 in the Turkey’s Official Journal.
The Copenhagen European Council Summit of 12th-13th December 2002 marked another important turning point in EU enlargement process. While the accession of ten candidate states to the EU has been declared, the Copenhagen European Council resolved that if the European Council in December 2004, on the basis of recommendation from the European Commission, decides that Turkey fulfills the Copenhagen political criteria, the EU would open accession negotiations with Turkey. Meanwhile, the leaders and heads of states of EU Member States agreed to extend and develop the cooperation on the Customs Union and to provide the Turkish government with increased pre-accession financial assistance in the Summit.
Progress towards accession continues along the path set by the National Program in the post-Helsinki period. The most crucial target at this stage is the opening of accession negotiations, which depends on the complete fulfillment of the Copenhagen political criteria. Within the last year, Turkey took a number of important steps. The most important among these are the major review of the Turkish Constitution with two Constitutional reform packages and eight harmonization packages that were adopted between February 2002 and July 2004. With these eight reform packages 218 articles of 53 different laws have been changed. In December 2003, during the Thessaloniki Summit, the Council’s welcomed the legislative reforms carried out by Turkey.
The European Commission´s Report and Recommendation in line with the decisions taken at the 2002 Copenhagen European Council were published on the 6th October 2004. In the 2004 Progress Report, the Commission has thoroughly analyzed the steps taken by Turkey on its road to accession. In its Recommendation, recognizing that Turkey has sufficiently fulfilled Copenhagen political criteria, the Commission has advised Member States to start accession negotiations with Turkey. Furthermore, the decision taken during the 1999 Helsinki Summit that “Turkey is a candidate country destined to join the EU” was underlined.
The Presidency Conclusions on Turkey in December 2004 constitutes an important and historical landmark. With the decisions taken at the 2004 Brussels Summit, Turkey-EU relations were moved to a whole new level. Based on this recommendation at the European Council on 16th -17th December 2004, the decisions taken in the 1999 Helsinki and 2002 Copenhagen Summits were reaffirmed, as the Council took note of the resolute steps taken by Turkey in pursuing a comprehensive reform process and decided to open accession negotiations on the 3rd October 2005 in the framework of the paragraph 23 of the Presidency Conclusions.
On the 29th June 2005, the European Commission submitted the “Accession Negotiations Framework for Turkey” to the European Council. The framework details the principles governing the negotiations, the scope of the negotiations, negotiating procedures and list of negotiation chapter titles. On the same day, the Commission also published the Communiqué on “Civil Society Dialogue between EU and Candidate Countries” aiming at strengthening the civil society of both Turkey and Croatia.
On the 30th July, Turkey signed the Additional Protocol, which extend the Ankara Agreement to the new member states but at the same time announced its reservation to the fact that this was not meant to be the diplomatic recognition of the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus. Turkey insisted that recognition would only come, when both Cypriot communities on the island would be reunited. In September 2005, Turkey was called by the European Council to recognize Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus. According to the European Council, leaving the recognition out of consideration would be ignoring a necessary element of the accession process. Nevertheless, the European Council started formal accession talks with Turkey on the 3rd October.
In 2006, Turkey presented a strategy for the solution of Cyprus issue to his Excellency Kofi Annan, then the Secretary General of the UN which proposed the removal of the isolation policy on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, in exchange of opening Turkey’s harbors to the Greek Administration. At the outset, Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus expressed its reluctance to open some chapters, unless Turkey met its obligation to recognize all 10 new EU Member States.
The EU started the accession negotiations with Turkey on the 3rd October 2005. Further information on Turkey’s accession process can be found in the section entitled “Accession Process”.